Diehard New York fan Spike Lee is throwing his support to the Celtics ‘ but not without his own motivations.

As Lee explained to ESPNNewYork.com, he has the Knicks’ best interest in mind when he roots for the C’s. He hopes that an Eastern Conference semifinals loss for the Cavaliers could sway James to leave Cleveland during free agency this summer.

“We need LeBron,” Lee said. “I feel we have a better chance to get LeBron James if Cleveland loses this series to the Celtics. The quicker Cleveland loses, the better our chances are of getting LeBron.”

In spite of his allegiance to the Knicks, Lee actually has a few ties to the Celtics. He directed Ray Allen in ‘He Got Game’ and recently spoke with Rajon Rondo at an event for ‘Just Wright,’ a movie in which Rondo has a cameo.

While Lee told ESPN he does not think the Cavs have an answer for Rondo, he strongly re-emphasized the true reason behind his unexpected support for the C’s.

“I’m not putting on any green and I’m not going to kiss the Blarney Stone or do the shamrock thing,’ he said. ‘I hate the Red Sox as much as I hate the Celtics and the ghost of Johnny Most and all those guys. This is the first and last time I root for Boston on anything, but for this one possible result it’s worth it.”

Jon Barry, who serves as an NBA analyst on ESPN and ABC, joined the Dennis & Callahan show Tuesday morning to talk about the Celtics-Cavaliers series. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. Barry said Rajon Rondo’s performance on Sunday cements his status as the maquee player on the C’s, ahead of the Big Three. Said Barry: “He’s quickly becoming the system, like Steve Nash in Phoenix. There’s not a guy in the league who wouldn’t say he wants to play with Steve Nash. Rondo’s quickly becoming the guys who is mentioned in that same breath.”

Barry said the Cavaliers continue to lean too heavily on LeBron James. “Their reliance on him to be superhuman is just too much,” Barry said. “When he doesn’t go crazy, they don’t win. They’ve got enough talent that they should be better than this.”

Barry suggested the Cavaliers should try inserting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who has taken a back seat to Shaquille O’Neal in the playoffs. And he expects to see the Cavs push the ball more aggressively and consistently, based on their success when they’ve done that in this series. “Cleveland in Game 3 did everything in transition. They pushed the tempo,” Barry said. “They did it in Game 3, then in Game 4, nothing. … I don’t understand how that happens.”

WALTHAM — As is his style, Rajon Rondo completely underplayed the possibility that LeBron James wants a piece of him for Game 5 in Cleveland on Tuesday. At least, on defense.

Even more, Rondo took the chance to show he can play history teacher, too.

‘It’s happened before,” Rondo said in recalling the 2008 NBA Finals. “LeBron is going to be LeBron. He’s a great help-defender so he’s definitely going to be helping. He’s a good defender. They did that a couple of years ago when Kobe was checking me in the Finals. So, I’m used to bigger guys giving me the shot and challenging me late because of their wingspan. But [Anthony] Parker, is 6-7, 6-6, he’s not LeBron but he’s similar. He’s not a first-team All Defense but he’s a good defender.

‘It really doesn’t matter about the matchups. Obviously, a big thing in the playoffs is the matchups, but for me, I don’t really care who’s guarding me. I’m still going to run our offense and our system. We run our sets on offense through Paul, Ray and Kevin.’

But Rondo isn’t as worried about who guards him Tuesday as he is the final result. A win and Rondo and the Celtics could clinch on home court Thursday night.

‘Each game you say is the most important game of the series, which is true,” he said. “Game 5 is the biggest game for us right now. There can be a momentum swing. The series has been up and down. I think each game is won, loss, won, loss so hopefully we can change it up and get two wins in a row.

‘The pressure is on them now and also on us. So there’s no one-way street now as far as to where the pressure is. I’m fairly confident we can go into Cleveland and get a win. We definitely have to be focused.’

As for getting Paul Pierce started, Rondo said he’ll do what he can but he knows his captain won’t force things.

‘We don’t want to sacrifice the entire offense or the team just to get Paul involved,” he said. “Paul is just an unselfish player so he’s not complaining about shots or that he’s only scoring 11 or 12 points. As long as we’re winning, he knows it’s a team sport. He’s very unselfish. It’s about sacrifices. Yesterday, I think Ray [Allen] got 21 shots up and myself. Maybe Paul gets 22 shots and maybe Ray and I only shoots four. It varies each game. If a guy has it going, you keep going to him.’

After scoring just nine points in 31 minutes on Sunday in the 97-87 Celtics win over Cleveland that evened the series, 2-2, everyone wants to know if Paul Pierce is physically fine.

And if he is, as he told reporters following Monday’s practice, why then is he having such trouble getting his offensive game going?

‘I’m not a rookie, you guys. I’m not a rookie,” Pierce said with a painful smile very similar to the one a certain Red Sox slugger sported after getting grilled about his woes just TWO games into the season.

“It is my 12th year. I’ve been in every situation, regardless. Whether it’s foul trouble, not playing, things not going so well for you, I know how to get through those times, mentally. It doesn’t affect me like it used to when I was a younger player where I had two or three fouls and not really playing the kind of basketball I want to. But the key is to keep focused and doing what you can to help the team win.’

And about your physical condition Paul?

‘There’s nothing wrong me,” Pierce said. “The key for me is being focused and giving my team what they need to win. So there’s nothing wrong with me.’

‘No, Paul’s fine, Paul’s fine,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers added. “Obviously, we want more out of him but we’re getting a lot out of him. I think unfortunately for Paul, he’s an offensive player and that’s what everyone sees in him and he has a defensive part in this series so they’re going to look at his offensive numbers so that’s the bad part of being Paul Pierce, really.’

Specifically, it was the early foul trouble in Games 3 and 4 at the Garden that Pierce pointed to as the main culprit in robbing him of offensive rhythm.

“If you’re a scorer, you’re a scorer for life,” Rivers said. “It’s like you’re in a gang, a scoring gang. I think scorers still think, ‘OK,’ and then once they get into it they realize, ‘Wow, this is tough.’ We just keep telling him to be aggressive. The one thing I did tell him was I thought I did think we got the right matchups for him he wasn’t looking to score. When we do get those situations, we need him to morph back into Paul.”

‘We don’t want to sacrifice the entire offense or the team just to get Paul involved,” added Rajon Rondo. “Paul is just an unselfish player so he’s not complaining about shots or that he’s only scoring 11 or 12 points. As long as we’re winning, he knows it’s a team sport. He’s very unselfish. It’s about sacrifices. Yesterday, I think Ray [Allen] got 21 shots up and myself. Maybe Paul gets 22 shots and maybe Ray and I only shoots four. It varies each game. If a guy has it going, you keep going to him.’

Pierce said he will not let games of 13, 14, 11 and nine points take him out of his focus of doing what it takes to help the team win the series, namely defend and help on LeBron James.

‘All that other stuff goes out the window, being frustrated,” Pierce said. “You really have to concentrate on the game when you’re not in the game so that when you go back in the game, you can finish it.

‘I’m digging myself a ditch as far as my fouls but I think they’re good fouls I’m getting, some bad ones but that’s the way the game goes. It’s nothing I’m really worried about. I know I can do a better job and control. No matter how I’m doing offensively, as long as we win, that’s all that matters to me.’

And winning Game 5 in Cleveland Tuesday is Job No. 1.

‘We definitely have a sense of urgency going into Game 5,” Pierce said. “We have to treat it like a Game 7, trying to gather some momentum, like we’ve been trying to do. We know it’s going to be a tough place to play back in Cleveland, trying to get two wins. It’s going to be very difficult. I think we’re going to put our hard hats on and clean up some of things we didn’t do right last night and in Game 3, and hopefully, try to steal another win.’

While everyone will rightfully point to Rajon Rondo’s historic triple-double performance in Game 4 on Sunday against Cleveland as the spark the Celtics needed, it was Tony Allen’s all-around court presence that might have made the biggest difference at the biggest moments of the game.

Allen ‘ as is his style ‘ came in full speed off the bench, running interference on LeBron James and flying down the court with the greatest of ease, taking passes from Rondo and dunking the ball to energize the Celtics and the TD Garden crowd in a crucial 97-87 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With the game tied at 70 late in the third quarter, Allen was smart enough to follow Rondo in transition. As Rondo drew James to the basket, that left Allen wide open. With a half-circle behind-his-back pass, Rondo fed Allen for a dunk and the Garden exploded.

‘Ya, that’s what you call an energy play from Rondo,” Allen said. “I mean he had energy all night. I don’t know what his stat-line was like but I know it was big and we fed off of his energy all night.”

Early in the fourth quarter, Allen had the chance to return the favor when he drew James to the basket, only to find a trailing Rondo behind him for another easy basket.

“It’s just one of those things where I got out in transition and we figured if we could get out quick, we could get some easy baskets,” Allen said.

Then there was just the simple matter of winning a game the Celtics absolutely needed, especially after the worst home-court playoff loss in Celtics history on Friday.

‘Nobody wants to apart of history from a losing effort, losing by 30 in your home court,” Allen said. “Everybody was looking at film yesterday and was down on themselves. I think today they came out and just wanted to turn that negative energy that we had last game into something big today. I think that we did a good job of that.

‘We all do a great job of listening to [defensive coach] Tom Thibodeau, Doc [Rivers] do a good job of drawing up plays, but most importantly we hang our hats on defense. I think that’s why we were big today.’

From the moment the season began, Doc Rivers told the Allen off the bench that his playing time will be dictated by two things – his defense and his energy.

Both have been in high gear at the best time of year for the Celtics so far.

‘Most definitely, I think once I get a few chip in baskets, they give me a little energy but for the most part I am a defender first on that court,” Allen said. “I need to do that in order for me to stay out there.’

With Paul Pierce saddled with five fouls and Ray Allen using all six of his, it was up to Allen off the bench to assume responsibility for helping to hold LeBron in check. And with just 22 points in 43 minutes, Allen and the Celtics accomplished their goal.

‘My plan for that was to listen to [defensive coach] Tom Thibodeau and call out those sets before hand and him looking at that formation, and I was just ready to roll. He did a good job just telling me the formation.

‘Basically all I have to say is that our whole concept is feeding off of our defense. Our team concept is slow to the ball and get it out to the shooters. I was just trying to be active on our team defense and I took advantage of that today and I was fortunate enough to convert that in the fourth quarter,’ Allen said.

If the Celtics can get more of that in the next week from Tony Allen, they might just need him later in May, too.

Ray Allen has always been extraordinary when it came to putting things in proper perspective – especially when the spotlight is brightest.

Everyone watching the Celtics on Friday night couldn’t believe they got blown out of their own building and were trailing by as many as 35, suffering their worst-ever home court playoff loss.

But Allen, before Game 4 Sunday, played it cool, just like he was taking a potential game-winning three-point shot.

“You go into Game 3, it’s almost Game 1 for both teams because you haven’t playing four days so you can’t take anything from the first two games and think there’s going to be too many similarities,” Allen said, attempting to explain the overwhelmingly poor performance.

“You’re almost starting fresh, everybody has a couple of days off, sitting around watching games and just relaxing. It’s like your first game of the playoffs so to speak.”

Allen certainly looked like he was taking his own words to heart in the first half of Game 4 Sunday when he got out in transition with Rajon Rondo and spotted up for open look after open look, drilling a couple of key 3-pointers. He even got into it with LeBron James, late in the second quarter, showing an emotional spark rarely seen.

Maybe it was the fact the Celtics found themselves in a virtual must-win situation, down 2-1, with Game 5 Tuesday in Cleveland. Or maybe he was just trying to provide an emotional jump-start to his teammates.

But Allen believes in not making the game any bigger than life. He sees a 2-1 deficit entirely manageable if the Celtics play their game, get to the basket and attack.

“Really hard to put a finger on it,” Allen said. “You have to deal with the predicament we’re in, which is really not too bad.”

Doc Rivers had a slightly different but still similar take on the dire need to win Game 4 at home and what happened in Game 3.

“If we had lost by three or lost by 40 or won by three or 40, it has to be the each mindset to begin each game,” the Celtics coach said. “I thought they came in to Game 3 with the right one and I didn’t think we did. And I think in Games 1 and 2, you can say we did. I don’t know if they didn’t but I know we did.

“I really don’t care about their mindset really, honestly. There’s going to be a game in this series where both teams are going to play great and we’re going to have to find a way of winning that game.”

According to SI’s Ian Thomsen, Ray Allen wasn’t the only Celtic shopped around at the trade deadline. Thomsen said there were discussions of a Kendrick Perkins for Carlos Boozer deal, which would have changed the landscape of the Celtics roster.

“Everybody had heard they were looking to deal Ray Allen for Caron Butler,” Thomsen said. “It turned out that was never going to happen. The Wizards were going to send Caron Butler to Dallas. But if the Celtics would have been able to make that deal they would have taken some of what they got from Washington and turned that around with Kendrick Perkins and made a deal for Carlos Boozer with Utah. That’s what they were looking to do. I’m not sure if it ever would have gone through, but they were seriously pursuing that end.”

That would have left the Celtics with a starting five of Kevin Garnett, Boozer, Paul Pierce, Butler and Rajon Rondo. Thomsen said it would have been a good move, but one that would have been pricey.

“It would have made them younger and it would allow them to contend for years going forward,” he said. “But it also would have made them even more expensive than ever. I think it just says a lot about the ambition of the franchise and the willingness to spend money if they think it’s going to pay off. That goes against the trend of other teams we’ve seen in the NBA right now.”